I tried to respond both to your Notes, but the one wouldn't 'send' my reply (as far as I could tell). I did (and do) thank you again for your serious thoughts.

To my mind, like today, in-kind benefits would simply not be transferable. If any could be sold anyway (such as clothes, if that were a benefit someone had negotiated), it would not be enough of a problem to damage the system.

As I see it, permitting monetary allowances would weaken the DDI as a solution for poverty, taking it towards being a universal income--a process that would undoubtedly grow over time. If it were a universal income, relative incomes would be what they were before. Between the rich and the poor that would make no difference, but at the margin, along the line of demarcation between being poor or not, it would make all the difference.